Nutrition, just like fashion goes through different trends. Food trends. As new research becomes available, manufacturing technology advances and culture and society changes, the ‘what’s hot’ in the nutrition world changes too. Read more of this post

Want to maintain a healthy weight, decrease storage of abdominal fat, keep your heart healthy and glow from the inside out? Including essential fats in your diet, particularly omega-3s, is a key component in the art of eating well.

So how do we eat more omega-3? Here are 6 ways to boost your intake of essential fats:

1. Chia Seeds
A nutrition ‘buzz food’, chia seeds are rich in omega-3 and just 1 tablespoon a day will meet your recommended dietary intake. Chia seeds are also high in fibre, antioxidants, calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium. Sprinkle them over your breakfast, salad or curry, or add them to stews, casseroles, smoothies or salad dressings. Take a look at this new bread, made with chia seeds – looks good to me!

2. Sardines
Out of all the oily fish varieties, sardines are the richest source of long-chain omega-3s. They are great on toast with low fat cheese under the grill or use them in cooking instead of tuna or salmon for something a little different.

3. Flaxseed
Flaxseed or linseeds are good sources of omega-3 have been shown to have many health benefits, including the improvement of abdominal obesity status. Click here for further reading on Flaxseeds and Tummy Fat. Add them to your breakfast cereal (especially great with muesli), stir them through yoghurt or add them to stews, curries or casseroles.

4. Walnuts
These tasty little nuts are also a great way to increase your omega-3 intake. Make up little snack bags with walnuts, flaxseed and dried fruit for a handy, healthy snack on the go or add them to a fresh salad for a bit of crunch.

5. Salmon
Another oily fish, salmon is another great way to boost your omega-3 intake. Used tinned salmon on a wholemeal bread roll with low fat cream cheese and fresh dill or a tin of flavoured salmon is great with wholemeal saladas or vita-wheat crackers. Visit www.taste.com.au for this amazing salmon recipe and much more!

6. Supplement
If you are not a nut, seed or fish person you may want to look into a daily omega-3 supplement to ensure sufficient intake of this essential fat. Please seek advice from an Accredited Practicing Dietitian or Registered Nutritionist on what type of supplement is best for you.

Although there is no such thing as a quick fix or magic pill for the reduction of body fat, a recent study published by the Journal of Nutrition found that regular consumption of flaxseed showed significant benefits for central obesity (tummy fat).

Flaxseed, also known as linseed, is high in polyunsaturated fats, particularly Omega-3, soluble fibre and also contains many other health promoting properties.

Omega-3 has been shown to provide many health benefits including improved cholesterol levels, reduction in heart disease risk and now it seems it may play a role in helping reduce abdominal fat.

This study found that participants who consumed 30g of flaxseed or walnuts (also high in omega-3) as part of a lifestyle intervention for improving metabolic syndrome, showed a greater tendency to lose weight and an improvement in their central obesity measurements.

Another study conducted in the UK found that switching saturated fat intake (bad fat) to polyunsaturated fat (healthy fat, including omega-3) showed an improvement in fat distribution across the abdomen.

30g of flaxseed a day, as part of a healthy diet, seems like an easy way to gain huge health benefits. Try some flaxseed today.

If you require help and advice on weight loss and improving your health, Kate Freeman Nutrition has a range of online and face-to-face services that can get you on the right track to getting the best out of your body.

Are you trying to lose weight and eat better? One of the best diet adjustments we can make is to decrease our total fat intake. Another piece of advice for weight loss that is gaining more and more scientific evidence is that eating fat can help us lose weight. What is the truth here?

Although the two pieces of advice above seem contradictory, they actually aren’t. We should follow both of them for optimum weight loss results. We need to decrease our intake of bad fat and increase our intake of good fat.

There are 3 different types of fat that are classified based on their chemical structure (saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated). What is important here is their roll in our health.

Saturated fat is bad fat. This is the fat that raises cholesterol, can cause damage to your arteries and put you at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, cancer and obesity. This is the fat that you want to reduce. Take this quiz to find how good your saturated fat intake really is.

Monounsaturated fat is a good fat found in olive oil, canola oil and peanut oil and is good for our cardiovascular health by lowering blood cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fat is found in sunflower oil, corn oil, safflower oil and fish oil and also contains cholesterol lowering benefits. These are the fats that we want to eat instead of saturated fat. Eat foods such as avocado, nuts, seeds, salmon, tuna and vegetable oils (olive, canola, grape seed etc).

Now the human body can make a lot of its own types of fats, however there are two it can’t make, Omega 3 and Omega 6. These are known as essential fats. Essential means that they cannot be made by the body, so we must eat them. Omega 3 and Omega 6 are required for a number of important body functions including: regulating inflammation, blood clotting, blood pressure and blood fat content, thus making them very good for your heart health.

There is now a substantial body of research finding that adequate consumption of Omega 3s, in particular, can help you have a leaner physique, longer lifespan, clearer skin and better overall health. Take a look at this interesting article on Omega 3 from flaxseed and its effect on tummy fat.

So there you go, eat the right type of fat to help you lose weight!

The richest source of omega 3 is fish oil. Eat tuna, salmon, mackerel sardines and other fatty fish. If you are not a big fish eater than you can also get Omega 3 from some nuts (walnuts) and flaxseed (linseeds). Here is a great post on how to get more omega 3 from your diet. You can also take Omega 3 as a supplement.